A few weeks had passed, only a few days left till Halloween. The school grounds were packed with wandering students, mostly first and second years who enjoyed tossing themselves around in the hazy leaves. Narcissa sat with Vesper and Nixie under a balding tree out of earshot from the other students.

“Nixie, it’s been two weeks,” Vesper argued. “He’s human. He made a mistake. He’s obviously changed and feels remorse for what he did. You can’t hold it against him forever.”

Narcissa rolled her eyes, something she’d been doing an awful lot lately. Nixie was getting on her last nerve. Vesper agreed with her that Nixie was a complete drama queen. She refused to even breathe in Drew’s direction, and though he said nothing, Narcissa could see how hurt he was. And to top it all off, Nixie had begun using the straightening charm on her hair again! Unbelievable!

Narcissa had come to the conclusion that Drew had purposely hid that secret from Nixie because he was ashamed of even attempting Dark Magic itself, let alone practicing on students. Her own father practiced it quite casually in private, doing his best to hide it, but Narcissa was not callow. Malfoy, however in her opinion, had only been naively curious about the Dark Arts, being the fool that he was. No doubt he was well practiced in it. The incantation he’d used to split the staircase had definitely been Dark Magic, she was sure of it.

“Ladies,” Vesper cleared her throat. “I know we haven’t talked much about our plan lately, but I wanted to know if we’re still doing it or not.”

“Of course we’re doing it!” Narcissa jumped, her shrieking voice frightening a few first year Hufflepuffs.

“Doing what?” a shrill voice asked. Perfect. Just who they wanted to see.

“I don’t care what she thinks,” Narcissa waved her off. “All I care about is finally acting on what we planned weeks ago!”

“Well the first Quidditch match is only days away after Halloween, but we’ll be ready by then. All we need to do is sneak into the boy’s dormitory the night before the match without getting caught.” Vesper couldn’t help the excited edge to her voice.

Professor Horace Slughorn had barely started the Potions lesson when the three eager friends entered and took a seat. Chatting in delight, they pulled out their Potions books and flipped open to the declared page. Many “oohs” and “ahs” were heard upon reading the title of the chapter “The Love Potion.”

“Now I’m sure all of you young ladies know what a love potion does, am I correct?” Professor Slughorn prompted with a smile.

“It beguiles the drinker, Professor,” Cilia blurted out with flushed cheeks, neglecting to raise her hand.

“Excellent, Ms. Hormitch, and as Head Girl, I’m betting you’ve infiltrated many of them.”

“Now listen up everyone,” Professor Slughorn clapped his hands. “Today, in pairs, we’re going to brew a specific love potion called Amortentia, which is the strongest love potion in the world. The group who makes the most advanced potion will earn 20 points each to their House. The groups are as is: Ms. Ramone and Ms. Perrywinkle, Ms. Crawford and Mr. Davis, Ms. Hale and Mr. Amador, Ms. Hormitch and Mr. Malfoy, Ms. Keating and Ms. Fosner, Ms. Brendras and Mr. Tonler, and finally, Ms. Black and Mr. Knight.”

Narcissa shot a guilty look at Nixie as Drew approached, a crooked smile masking the morose truth. Lucius, paired with Cilia, looked like he wanted to suffocate himself by sticking his head in the cauldron. Narcissa wished he would. Vesper rushed past her, yanking on her robes so tightly that she stumbled back, knocking over an empty vial.

“Ohmygodimsosorryijustwantedtotellyouthatimabouttofaintbecauseslughornpairedmewithdmitriokayillleaveyoualonenowbye,” Vesper gasped out in one breath.

Narcissa bit her lip to keep from laughing and drew out her wand, muttering a simple Reparo as the broken shards of glass put themselves back together. Placing the vial back on the table, whose eye should she catch if not Lucius Malfoy’s, who instantly turned away at first glance.

Nodding it off, she directed her attention back to Vesper, who was at the table to her left. She had edged herself far from Dmitri, who looked like he was thinking a wee bit hard.

Vesper’s eyes widened when Dmitri suddenly spoke.

“I’ll bet you don’t need a love potion to get what you want, Ms. Hale.”

Vesper snorted unattractively to show her disgust. “I can only wonder how many witches you’ve used that one on.”

Dmitri frowned, obviously expecting a better response. “Just you, honestly. I was only trying to be charming.”

“Yes, well, you’re better off not trying at all.”

Narcissa laughed, intrigued by the failed attempt of conversation she was witnessing. Her smile, however, ceased when her eyes fell on Drew, who was intently staring across the room at Nixie.

“She’s overreacting a bit, isn’t she?” Drew asked, not taking his eyes off of her.

“It’s Nixie, of course she’s overreacting,” Narcissa pointed out, snapping Drew back into his logical senses. “But you did hide something really drastic from her. I mean, I can’t believe-”

“I know, Narcissa, believe me I know. I never talk about it, never. I wish I could erase it from my own memory.” He sighed, staring at Nixie again.

“She’ll get over it.”

“I’ve never seen her so upset.”

“Well of course she’s upset, Drew, I mean honestly what were you thinking?”

Drew sighed a deep sigh and ran a frustrated hand through his hair. He picked up the Potions book and began reading the instructions. Every time Narcissa had approached him about it over the past few weeks, he had avoided talking about it.

“It’s not that I didn’t want to tell her,” Drew spoke, agitated as he added ashwinder eggs into the cauldron. “It’s just a part of myself that I’m not proud of and I didn’t want her knowing.”

“Did you tell her that?”

“She wouldn’t listen!” he exclaimed loudly as a few people glanced in their direction.

“Did you really practice the Cruciatus Curse on Muggle-borns from our school?” Narcissa inquired while adding peppermint and rose thorns.

Drew’s jaw tightened before he responded, “That was only once, and I couldn’t even go through with it all the way. And we only practiced on students two or three times. I was never comfortable with any of it anyway.”

“So the Cruciatus Curse was only once?”

“Yeah, it was for some sort of initiation. You don’t understand the way they pressured us. It wasn’t just Malfoy and me though, there were other people. The Rosiers, the Lestranges…they were all a part of it too, and it started getting serious.”

“Did Malfoy do it? The Cruciatus Curse, I mean?”

“Yeah, but only for a little. He couldn’t go through with it either. He was nervous as hell. I know he looks like the type who would go through with it, but he couldn’t. We were just kids, you know? Anyway, they said we didn’t have to practice on students anymore. It wasn’t part of the plan. The plan was to just learn the Dark Arts. Even that started getting too serious for me. That’s why I stopped being friends-”

“Friends with Malfoy,” she nodded, remembering what Nixie had said a few weeks ago. She cringed at the mention of her relatives, the Rosiers. And the Lestranges? She wondered if Bellatrix practiced Dark Magic with her husband, Rodolphus Lestrange. Then again, her sister always had been twisted, so the idea didn’t really surprise her. She didn’t do a very good job of hiding it anyway. Quite the opposite actually. She was always advocating how all Purebloods should be educated in defending their kind. She could only assume what Bella meant by that.

“You have to understand something, Narcissa,” Drew explained. “Lucius was pulled into all that stuff too, and no matter what I did, I couldn’t get him out. I mean, he didn’t like practicing on people either. He just wanted to learn it for himself. I didn’t want to learn it at all anymore, so I just dropped him and most of the others.”

“Is that why he hates you so much?” she asked, putting all the pieces together. She turned towards Malfoy, who was now watching them with his head held high. He knew they were talking about him. Smirking, he tore his eyes away and added an ingredient to his potion.

“Yeah, he mostly thinks I’m a coward. He gets that I didn’t want to practice on people because he didn’t either, but he thinks I should’ve stuck around to learn the Arts. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think he’s delved in too deep, though he is fairly practiced in it. It’s just not my sort of thing, you know? I don’t want to get mixed up with his crew of idiotic-”

Before Drew could finish his sentence, a loud eruption made both Drew and Narcissa jump, as well as everyone else in the classroom. Narcissa turned to see Vesper, whose face was covered in black ash. Professor Slughorn rushed over to Vesper and Dmitri, his eyes wide in astonishment.

“Ms. Hale, you of all people-”

“Professor, I told him not to add too much, but he didn’t listen to me!” Vesper cried, her hands shaking in anger. Dmitri, meanwhile, was silently sitting in shock, never having had a potion blow up in his face.

“Very well, Ms. Hale. Mr. Amador, you will stay after class and brew another pot of Amortentia, correctly this time, with the help and supervision of Ms. Hale.”

“But, Professor-” Vesper wailed, standing up.

“That is that!” he shouted impatiently, silencing them with his finger.

Narcissa burst into laughter once again from the look on Vesper’s face. She caught Nixie’s eye, and they both giggled hysterically with each other, until Nixie caught Drew’s eye. Then she abruptly turned away, any hint of a smile vanishing from her face.

After Professor Slughorn finished examining every cauldron, he awarded 20 house points to Lucius and Cilia each. Of course by pairing Head Boy and Head Girl together, what did Slughorn expect? Cilia squealed with excitement and pride, as opposed to Lucius, who simply sat there as if he’d accomplished a task as pathetic as repairing a broken vase.

Narcissa and Nixie left class together, when Drew suddenly popped up behind them.

“Nixie, I need to talk to you,” he declared, blocking her path.

She stood utterly still, unsure what she should do.

“Go on, Nixie,” Narcissa urged, egging her on. “I’ll meet you back in the Common Room.”

Narcissa watched them round a corner, fighting the urge to follow. Eventually, she gave in and tracked them down with quiet footsteps. She knew what she was doing was terrible but she simply had to make sure they were going to make up. Not to mention she couldn’t help herself. She tried to make herself feel better by telling herself that Vesper would have done the same thing if she weren’t stuck babysitting Dmitri.

“What?” Nixie asked with crossed arms, standing against the wall.

Narcissa was peeking around the corner, watching them inconspicuously.

“Damn it, I’m sorry! How many times do I have to tell you I’m sorry? I’m sorry okay, I’m fucking sorry.” He ran a frustrated hand through his hair, taking a step back and breathing out slowly before saying, “I regret it more than anything.”

“How many times did you practice on people? Exactly how many times?” Nixie asked dryly.

“Nixie-”

“How many times?” she cut him off.

“Like three, maybe four. I told you, I couldn’t do it,” he shook his head.

“But you did it anyway, at least three or four times.”

“You don’t know what those guys are like. They make you want to be like them. They make you want to…to do things that you wouldn’t normally do.” He took her hand in his. Surprisingly she didn’t pull away. “I would never do anything to hurt you. I love you. I didn’t want to tell you because I was scared that you wouldn’t love me. I was scared you’d be disgusted of me.”

“I could never be disgusted of you,” she said softly, an edge still to her voice.

“You are right now,” he pointed out.

“I’m angry, Drew, I’m not disgusted. We’ve been together how long, two years, and you never found the right moment to tell me?”

“There was no right moment. It’s not something that has a right moment.”

“You told me I knew everything about you. Do you have any idea how humiliating it was for me to find out that I actually didn’t?”

“I’m sorry, Nixie, I am. I like to pretend it didn’t happen. Why would I want to make it part of your reality?”

She pulled her hand away. “Because it did happen.”

He sighed again, “I know.”

“Promise me,” she held up her finger at him. “Promise me you won’t ever lie to me again, Drew. Ever.”

“Nixie, I promise-”

“No, I mean it. If you ever lie to me again it’s over. No matter how much I love you, it’ll be over.”

“I promise I will never lie to you again,” he took her hand in his again as she leaned back against the wall. This time, he leaned in, closing the distance between them. “I haven’t kissed you in two weeks.”

This was the lovey dovey part that started to gross Narcissa out. She liked angst. She was good at angst. Lovey dovey? Not really her area of expertise.

“I’m still mad at you,” she said softly, looking up at him.

They stared at each other longingly before Drew closed the distance between them, enveloping Nixie in a passionate kiss as she wrapped her arms around him. That was it. Narcissa couldn’t watch anymore. She didn’t want to see something that would make her feel violated. They had made up, and that was good enough for her.

Leaving Drew and Nixie to snog each other’s brains out, she made her way down the hall until she came face to face with Malfoy. If she didn’t know any better, she would have thought he had been deliberately waiting for her to walk by.

“Still think I’m a liar?” he spat in her face as she stepped back.

“Why do you care what I think?” she retorted, pushing him out of the way.

As she turned to walk away, he grabbed her arm, gently but firmly, and maneuvered her into him.

“I saw you talking to Drew in Potions, and I believe you owe me an apology,” he commanded, making her scoff.

“An apology? You may have inched your way out of this one, but that doesn’t make you any less of a liar. How could you practice Dark Magic on actual students here? You think that makes you any better than Drew? At least he regrets it.”

“You don’t know anything,” he gritted his teeth at her.

“Then do explain,” she crossed her arms, then decided, “No, actually don’t. It won’t change the fact that I absolutely hate you, so don’t even bother.”

She pushed him away and continued on to the Common Room, when Malfoy suddenly cut her off from her path once again.

“The point is I wasn’t lying about Drew.”

“So?” she tapped her foot anxiously.

“So, apology, Black,” he repeated, his tone sharp.

“Are you really that proud, Malfoy, that-”

Disregarding her sentence, Lucius enclosed the space separating them, binding Narcissa against the wall. Leaving no distance between them, he leaned in close with hungry eyes. It reminded her of the way Drew had pinned Nixie against the wall only moments ago. Except that was a romantic notion. There was nothing romantic about Malfoy and her. The thought itself was…repulsing.

“Apologize,” he ordered, his silky hair brushing Narcissa’s shoulder.

“You brazen animal,” she whispered angrily, struggling against him.

“What’s going on here?” came a stern voice accompanied by light footsteps.

They turned to see Professor Septima striding towards them, her long emerald cloak floating gracefully behind her. Lucius instantly pulled back, allowing Narcissa to finally breathe. She straightened herself out, her chest heaving. She couldn’t stop the shaking of her hand, and in an attempt to conceal it, slipped it into her robe.

Narcissa’s hand flew to her cheek, resting against the flame that had ignited beneath her skin. Why was her face red? And why was her heart beating so fast? Surely it wasn’t exhilaration pumping through her veins, or was it? Perhaps it was the thrill of being so close to a man as dangerous as Lucius Malfoy and living to tell the tale.

“It’s just so stuffy down here, Professor. I’m finding it difficult to breathe.”

“Well then I suggest some fresh air, Ms. Black. Hurry along now.”

As soon as Professor Septima disappeared around the corner, Narcissa turned to scold Lucius, but wasn’t quick enough as he had some scolding of his own to do.

“Consider yourself lucky,” he warned, his lips shaping themselves into an evil grimace. “Next time, you won’t get away so easily.”

He turned and stormed down the hallway, leaving Narcissa to slump up against the wall.

Next time, she thought to herself, the one wanting to get away will be you, Lucius Malfoy.

*******

A/N: So Lucius isn't that bad after all. I mean he's bad, but he's sexy bad. He is Slytherin after all so you can't expect a clean record. Anyway, I had to include a lovey dovey make up scene between Drew and Nixie because I simply adore them. BUTTTTT Malfoy rules all the way. So yeah leave me a review guys give me your feedback and lots of lovin<3